This is the first time I have written a detailed commentary on a particular book of the Bible. This has been an adventure for me. Very challenging, but I am glad I have finished what I started.
Why this book?
I have always admired the book of Proverbs. I have always wanted to make them part of my life. However, I just didn’t understand some of them. So, I set out to understand them. Every single verse.
And I started by counting them. 918 verses. 15,000 words. Then I read through the entire book. Out loud. And then I read the commentaries I could land on. About 6 of them. This process took me three months. Just reading and studying and making notes where necessary.
After three months, I relaxed and focused on other books unrelated to Proverbs. This was last year, 2022. And then at the start of this year, I started on this book. To be precise, that was on 7th January, 2023.
I marked the chapters and the number of verses in each chapter. Sort of like a discipline and motivation. And every time I finished a chapter, I ticked as you can see in that picture.
As for the verses, I quickly realized how different Bible versions are so different. I have always been a NKJV Bible guy, but while dealing with this book, I was a KJV Bible guy. I concluded that most of these versions are more like comments on the original reading of the verse. So, I have been careful to give proper explanations for differing verses.
The other thing I wanted was for every verse I worked on, I wanted it to be memorable to me. I wanted it to stick. The best way for that to happen was to attach a story on that verse. And not just any story, but a story from the Bible. So in the book, you will find stories attached on most of the verses. Also, I wanted all the verses explained. There is a lot of repetition in the book of Proverbs, and most commentators simply say, “See Proverbs chapter this, verse this” for a comment here. I wanted to avoid that.
And I wrote. Every chapter took me about 2-3 days. Some chapters took me 2 weeks. And some took months. For instance, in February, I didn’t work on any chapter. On average, I have been doing 3-4 chapters every month.
And after 6 months, I completed the manuscript. It is challenging, but true to the title and subtitle of the book. I thought I could share the process on how I wrote it. Hopefully, when you read it, it will engage you.
I haven’t yet produced the paperback and hardcover, but they are on the way. For now, here’s the kindle version of the book. You can get it here.